A Summit Without Russia Needs a Drink to Match

By JOSH BARRO

May 30, 2014

The G7 summit that will start next Wednesday in Brussels was supposed to be a G8 summit and was supposed to be held in Sochi, Russia. So this week’s Upshot With a Twist replaces the Moscow Mule with a more characteristically Belgian cocktail for the relocated and reduced meeting.

A Moscow Mule is vodka, ginger beer and lime. To replace it, we sought a vodka-free drink that would combine ginger and citrus with genever, a juniper-flavored spirit that was the precursor to gin and that remains popular in Belgium and the Netherlands.

I put this request in at Dutch Kills, a bar in Long Island City, Queens, and was presented with the Holland Bee Sting. It’s a drink that combines genever, lemon juice, ginger and honey syrups, and Amaro CioCiaro, a bittersweet orange liqueur.

Valero Doval

The drink (a variation on Sam Ross’s Penicillin) provides a refreshing burst of ginger and citrus, yet is also boozier than a Moscow Mule — welcome news for world leaders coping with the Ukraine crisis.

Jan Warren, the head bartender at Dutch Kills, provides the recipe below, or you can visit the bar from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily at 27-24 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City.

The Holland Bee Sting

2 oz. genever

3/4 oz. lemon juice

3/8 oz. ginger syrup

3/8 oz. honey syrup

1/4 oz. Amaro CioCiaro

Add all but the Amaro to a shaker, shake with ice, and strain over ice into a double rocks glass. Float the Amaro over the drink — don’t worry, it sinks.